Schneider and Carroll talk about draft

Here’s what Pete Carroll and John Schneider had to say about the draft today:

Schneider on moving down: “Last night when we ended we had to have a name ready in New York and it was Paul Richardson’s name. So we were really excited to be able to go back again today. I give our pro staff and all of our scouts and everybody just a ton of credit to have the patience to hang in there and try to identify where he would be taken. He was too rare for us to pass up. I think he had 184 targets and three drops. He’s incredibly fast, explosive, can play inside and outside. I’m sure you guys had heard about it already. We’re really excited about that. To come back at the end of the round and grab an offensive tackle because there was going to be a run on offensive tackles, and then there was going to be a fairly big drop off there. So we needed to grab one as soon as we could.”

Carroll on what he likes about Paul Richardson: “I like a lot about him. We’re really excited that this happened, and we’ve been watching it the whole time hoping we could get there. He’s got great qualities. His speed is extraordinary. He has the terrific hands and a great catching range, he’s really got characteristics like the guys that have been successful for us. He’s got quickness kind of like Doug Baldwin, he’s got speed kind of like Percy Harvin, and he has that catching range kind of like Jermaine Kearse so we just felt really comfortable with his style of play. I see him as a route runner. He’s an outside guy for us, a guy that can really get in and out of his breaks and he’s got great stuff. We’re really excited about this pick.” Schneider: “He’s just really explosive. I think his averages scores are from about 40 yards, 40.05 or something like that so he’s a big play guy.”

Schneider on having as many picks tomorrow as he came into the draft with: “Yeah we feel blessed in that regard. We’re ready to go to work, we’re ready to start picking good players for our system and four our coaching staff to work with.”

Carroll on if Richardson fits the mode of a guy with unique attributes: “He absolutely does. I really think he’s the guy with the best quickness in and out of his breaks and that explosive down the field strike ability. It’s just an exciting guy to bring to camp to add to our team. I think our guys will take to him, he’s a really good kid, and he’s really pumped up about this opportunity. We’ll see where we could fit him in.”

Carroll on if there is any concern about his size: “That’s an interesting question. How big is Doug Baldwin, how big is Percy Harvin, he’s just like our guys. I know that there is some concern about that or whatever. We love the way our guys play with the productivity and the effect that they have so we didn’t have any problem with that at all. We love how fast he is.”

Carroll on if he spent any recruiting time with him: “No because we just kind of missed. He was on the radar, but we just kind of missed. You can imagine he was there with some pretty good players at his high school. They were a great school of receivers at the time.”

Carroll on having success with big receivers while he was at USC and now him having success with some smaller guys here and how has that happened: “It really all depends on the player. We love big guys. John and I both we have a real feeling for the big receiver, but that doesn’t mean we’ll find the right guy. We looked and we’ve even tried if you look at what we’ve done over the years. We still feel that way, but again it always goes back to us looking for the unique qualities and you can’t make a little guy a big guy, and sometimes you can’t make a big guy fast enough to play. We’re not going to force that and we’re really going after those qualities that we can do something with. We’re always looking though.” JS “If it’s going to be a leaner guy like this it has to be a guy that attacks the ball and plays in competitive tight spots, and this guy does that. He has broad shoulders, he’s a lean guy, but his length is really nice. With that basketball conversion he ends up being a 6’4” catching radius guy. I don’t know if you’re in to fast guys.”

Schneider on why he chose not to meet with him at the combine: “You have to just pick a certain amount of guys to interview. There are certain guys that you need to get specific questions answered, and at the time he wasn’t one of those guys. It was one of those deals where we had other people meeting with him, he just didn’t have like a room interview with us. Our coaches met with him and our psychologist met with him and stuff like that.”

Schneider on if he is a possible punt return option for them: “He’ll get a look, but he hasn’t done it because he’s been their whole team, I shouldn’t say their whole team, but their whole offense so they were kind of afraid to put him out there, but he said he’s been practicing.” Carroll: “He says he wants to do that.”

Carroll on Tom Cable speaking on Justin Britt’s unique characteristics: “Yeah he’s another really tough kid. He’s got a really good attitude. I love his mentality for playing the position. Tom probably told you that we want to give him a shot at right tackle and let the competition just play it out. He’s got all of the qualities of a big long, strong tough guy. He’s 325 pounds. He’s going to fit in just right. This will just come down to opportunity, and he’s going to get it, and we’ll see how it works out. It’ll make Michael Bowie stretch it and that’s the whole idea and it will certainly help us.”

Schneider on picking best player vs. for need: “I would say at the top there was no change. When we got to Britt there was discussion definitely, but we were comparing other positions, and the drop off was too big. There’s just too big of a gap, on our board, at offensive tackle right now. So we were like we have to grab this guy, and sure enough I think Morgan Moses went right after him and somebody else went right in there too. You saw the rest of them kind of come off.”

Schneider on how big is this third day: “The third day is a blast for us. Pete loves the rookie free agency part. We all do. I say that because the recruiting thing is pretty fun. For the scouts and all of the guys and the coaches have put so much time into that if you’re able to move back a little bit and garner a pick or two or three or four, it’s really a good opportunity to just sit there and try to find those unique fits in guys that’ll compete and push guys that are at a current position or guys that are going to be free agents the following year. So you just try to find unique guys to fit those spots.”

Carroll on Russell Okung: “He’s coming back from a foot surgery so he’s not working with us, he’s conditioning as he can right now. It’s going to be a while before we get him back, about camp time. There was really stuff that needed to be done. It gives Alvin Bailey great opportunity for real quality reps with the first group, and it’ll help other guys with opportunities as well. Russell will be fine and it’s something that we had to do after the season was over. He had a few things and so we’ve taken care of it.”

Carroll on if he’ll be back during training camp: “I don’t want to nail that one, but I would think. We know we’ll have him back for training camp, but maybe sooner than that.”

Schneider on Richardson’s incident that caused him to leave UCLA: “Yeah I’m glad there wasn’t twitter and cell phones when I was in college. He made a mistake right when he got to UCLA. He admitted his mistake and has moved on. Everybody at Colorado speaks incredibly high of him. They love his competitiveness and he just seems like our kind of guy.”